Hand Tools

Warren in Lancaster, PAMouldings look best when they are made with moulding planes and not scraped or sanded. Crisp and clean. I generally use near perfect timber for mouldings. I take care to orient the stock in a favorable direction (usually on two adjacent planes, top and side). I also sometimes plane the stock on a taper to change the orientation 5 degrees or so to get an even more favorable situation. And if there are problems I sharpen the iron and take thin shavings at the end.

I have 45, 50, 55, and 60 degree moulding planes. I like 60 degrees the least. There are tradeoffs here because the lower angle mouldings look slightly better and and higher angles are slightly less prone to tearing.